Falcomb Knuche "Fred" Nicklewhite was born on the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas and moved with his family to Vermont in 1898. Trained as a master tailor, he spent summers working at the Equinox Hotel in Manchester and winters at the Don CeSar Hotel in St. Petersburg, Florida. His notable clientele included the legendary jazz musicians Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway, with whom he maintained great friendships. Investing in his adopted hometown of Manchester, Nicklewhite owned several buildings that once stood at this site, including an early-19th-century house with Italianate-style alterations, two barns, a tailor shop, and an 1872 tinsmith/plumber's shop that was rehabilitated for the Nicklewhite Shoe Factory.